Roger Sippl, a poker player and “serial entrepreneur” who appeared multiple times on High Stakes Poker, passed away at age 71 — 52 years after doctors gave him two years to live.
Andrew Robl, who befriended Sippl, shared the news on X. He referred to his friend as a “loving husband, father, founder, and all around poker enjoyer.”
“Sippl might be the only regular player I’ve played poker with that I’ve never heard a bad word said about. He was just an all around gentlemen and great guy. Never got upset, never had a bad time,” Robl wrote.
Remembering Roger Sippl
Sippl, born Feb. 22, 1955 in Wassau, Wisconsin, was a Hodgkin’s disease survivor while attending the University of Cal-Berkeley. After college, he got married, had three kids, and founded many successful businesses, including Informix Corporation, a computer software company he sold to IBM in 2005.
The Wall Street Journal once referred to Sippl as a serial entrepreneur for his numerous business ventures. Sippl’s success in business was almost a miracle, and not because he wasn’t a brilliant mind. As Phil Hellmuth tweeted, when Sippl was 19 years old, doctors told him he had “no chance” to live beyond age 21.
Not only did the future entrepreneur prove the doctors wrong, he lived another 52 years. During his adulthood, he took up poker on a recreational but serious level.
Sippl, who played in Hellmuth’s private games, appeared four times on PokerGO’s High Stakes Poker during Season 10 in 2023. He also had some live tournament results, with $3.8 million in cashes, per The Hendon Mob.
Sippl nearly won a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in 2016, finishing in third place for $245,389 in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Seniors Championship. His biggest score came in 2015 when took second place for $1,344,420 in a $100,000 Super High Roller at the PokerStars Carribean Adventure (PCA).
Hellmuth called Sippl a “colorful character” in his home game the past 20 years and a “fearless businessman.”
“He talked about his family at every opportunity,” Hellmuth wrote of the late poker-playing entrepreneur.
Sippl is the second player in Hellmuth’s games who has passed away in recent weeks. Jeremy Kaufman, an investor who played on Hustler Casino Live, died last month.
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